In 1983, the High Court of Australia defined religion as 'a complex of beliefs and practices which point to a set of values and an understanding of the meaning of existence'.

At the time of European settlement, the Aboriginal inhabitants followed their own religions which were animistic in nature, involving beliefs in spirits behind the forces of nature, and the influence of ancestral spirit beings.

During the 1800s, European settlers brought their traditional churches to Australia. These included the Church of England (now the Anglican Church), and the Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Congregationalist and Baptist churches.

Section 116 of the 1900 Act to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia (Australian Constitution) provides that:

'The Commonwealth of Australia shall not make any law establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth'.

With the exception of a small but significant Lutheran population of Germanic descent, Australian society in 1901 was predominantly Anglo-Celtic, with 40% of the population being Church of England, 23% Catholic, 34% other Christian and about 1% professing non-Christian religions. While the population had more than doubled by 1954, the denominational mix had changed little.

Further waves of migration helped to reshape the profile of Australia's religious affiliations over subsequent decades. The impact of migration from Europe in the aftermath of World War II led to increases in affiliates of the Orthodox Churches, the establishment of Reformed bodies, growth in the number of Catholics (largely from Italian migration), and the creation of ethnic parishes among many other denominations. More recently, immigration from South-East Asia and the Middle East has expanded Buddhist and Muslim numbers considerably, and increased the ethnic diversity of existing Christian denominations.

In response to the 2001 Census question, Australians' stated religious affiliations were: 27% Catholic, 21% Anglican, 21% other Christian denominations and 5% non-Christian religions. Just over one-quarter of all Australians either stated that they had no religion, or did not adequately respond to the question.

A question on religious affiliation has been asked in every census taken in Australia, with the voluntary nature of this question having been specifically stated since 1933. In 1971, the instruction 'if no religion, write none' was introduced. This saw a seven-fold increase in the proportion of Australians stating they had no religion, from the previous census year. Since 1971, this proportion has progressively increased, reaching 16% in 2001. Table 5.50 provides a summary of the major religious affiliations at each census since 1901.

Between 1996 and 2001, Catholic affiliates increased by 4% and Baptist affiliates by 5%. However, as the Australian population grew by 6% during this period, the actual proportion of the population professing affiliation to these denominations remained virtually unchanged. The most notable decreases in Christian affiliation occurred for Churches of Christ (decreasing by 18%), the Uniting Church (decreasing by 7%), and Presbyterian and Reformed (decreasing by 6%). An increase was seen for Pentecostal affiliation, which increased by 11% between 1996 and 2001 (from 174,720). A substantial increase, associated with immigration from South Eastern Europe, was also seen for the Orthodox Churches, with the number of Orthodox affiliates increasing by 7% (from 497,015).

Affiliates of religions other than Christianity have shown the largest proportional increases since the 1996 Census, although they still comprised a relatively small proportion of the population in 2001 (5%). Stated affiliation to Buddhism increased by 79%, to Hinduism by 42%, to Islam by 40% and to Judaism by 5%. These changes partly resulted from trends in immigration. Although the most common religious affiliation of immigrants is Christianity, affiliates of other religions are more highly represented among recent immigrants than in the total population. Between 1996 and 2001, there were just over half a million new arrivals to Australia. Of these, 9% were affiliated to Islam, 9% to Buddhism, 5% to Hinduism and 1% to Judaism.

In 2001, 82% of Australians aged 65 years and over identified themselves as Christian. This proportion was lower among younger age groups, with 60% of 18-24 year olds having identified themselves as Christian. Indeed, while 15% of all Christian affiliates were aged 65 years and over, 8% were aged between 18 and 24 years. In contrast, the other religions have a younger age profile. While 6% of Buddhist affiliates were aged 65 years and over in 2001, 13% were aged between 18 and 24 years. The largest group of Buddhist affiliates was 35-44 year olds. Similar trends were evident for Hindu and Muslim affiliates. In the 2001 Census, people in the 18-24 years age group were the most likely to state that they had no religion (20%).

Table 5.51 shows the distribution of religious groupings by the number and percentage of affiliates at the 1996 and 2001 censuses, and the change which occurred during that five-year period.

5.50 MAJOR RELIGIOUS AFFILIATIONS

Christianity

Anglican

Catholic

Other

Total

Other religions

No religion

Not stated/ inadequately described

Total

Census year

%

%

%

%

%

%

%

'000

1901

39.7

22.7

33.7

96.1

1.4

0.4

(a)2.0

3,773.8

1911

38.4

22.4

35.1

95.9

0.8

0.4

(a)2.9

4,455.0

1921

43.7

21.7

31.6

96.9

0.7

0.5

(a)1.9

5,435.7

1933

38.7

19.6

28.1

86.4

0.4

0.2

12.9

6,629.8

1947

39.0

20.9

28.1

88.0

0.5

0.3

11.1

7,579.4

1954

37.9

22.9

28.5

89.4

0.6

0.3

9.7

8,986.5

1961

34.9

24.9

28.4

88.3

0.7

0.4

10.7

10,508.2

1966

33.5

26.2

28.5

88.2

0.7

0.8

10.3

11,599.5

1971

31.0

27.0

28.2

86.2

0.8

6.7

6.2

12,755.6

1976

27.7

25.7

25.2

78.6

1.0

8.3

11.4

13,548.4

1981

26.1

26.0

24.3

76.4

1.4

10.8

11.4

14,576.3

1986

23.9

26.0

23.0

73.0

2.0

12.7

12.4

15,602.2

1991

23.8

27.3

22.9

74.0

2.6

12.9

10.5

16,850.3

1996

22.0

27.0

21.9

70.9

3.5

16.6

9.0

17,752.8

2001

20.7

26.6

20.7

68.0

4.9

15.5

11.7

18,769.2

(a) Includes 'object to state'.

Source: ABS data available on request, Census of Population and Housing.

5.51RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION

1996

2001

Change

'000

%

'000

%

%

Christianity

Anglican

3,903.3

22.0

3,881.2

20.7

-0.6

Baptist

295.2

1.7

309.2

1.6

4.8

Catholic

4,799.0

27.0

5,001.6

26.6

4.2

Churches of Christ

75.0

0.4

61.3

0.3

-18.2

Jehovah's Witness

83.4

0.5

81.1

0.4

-2.8

Lutheran

250.0

1.4

250.4

1.3

0.2

Orthodox

497.0

2.8

529.4

2.8

6.5

Pentecostal

174.7

1.0

194.6

1.0

11.4

Presbyterian and Reformed

675.5

3.8

637.5

3.4

-5.6

Salvation Army

74.1

0.4

71.4

0.4

-3.7

Uniting Church

1,334.9

7.5

1,248.7

6.7

-6.5

Other Christian

420.6

2.4

497.9

2.7

18.4

Buddhism

199.8

1.1

357.8

1.9

79.1

Hinduism

67.3

0.4

95.5

0.5

41.9

Islam

200.9

1.1

281.6

1.5

40.2

Judaism

79.8

0.4

84.0

0.4

5.2

Other religions

68.6

0.4

92.4

0.5

34.6

No religion

2,948.9

16.6

2,906.0

15.5

-1.5

Not stated/Inadequately described

1,604.7

9.0

2,187.7

11.7

36.3

Total

17,752.8

100.0

18,769.2

100.0

5.7

Source: ABS data available on request, 1996 and 2001 Censuses of Population and Housing.

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